Rumours have been heard amongst dock-workers in the cluster that someone on Lens is stockpiling weapons. At least, an unusual number of armaments have been shipped there by Zvitter ships of late. Who is paying for these – and whether it is known about on Lens – remains a mystery.

A chef on Anvil has gained a reputation as one of the finest in the Cluster, and the impact on the economy of a sudden influx of wealthy tourists is threatening to destabilise the delicate political situation on the planet. That’s to say nothing of the chef himself, who only really wants to leave Anvil, but suddenly finds himself in high demand at home…

Three dangerous prisoners have escaped from the Mines of Gilgamesh to the surface of Babylon, and are now at large on the garden world. Most search parties have returned without luck, but one hasn’t returned at all.

A band of free Parian clones, who escaped during the chaos following the end of The Cascade War, ply the seas of Sekothai taking by force what they need and dodging their former employees. The pirate band is led by a fierce soldier model, known as Red Lucy, who is rumoured to spare any captives’ life if they can find the answer to subverting her in-built body clock.

Someone is trying to engineer a breed of Zoabab tree to survive on Turbine and harvest fuel.

Contentious Lensian research indicates that the slipstream is an artificial manipulation of spacetime and that the slipknots themselves are, theoretically, adjustable. Whether The First constructed these streams of designer space-time or used the artefacts of an even-greater civilisation to expand beyond Old Earth is unknown.

Regarding the above rumour, Heoroti scientists made the same discovery as the scholars of Lens a long time ago, perhaps studying Atlantis. The Hundred Halls made the decision to keep what they had learned secret, however, fearing the potential for mass hysteria and political unrest that the idea that slipstream links could be broken or redirected would unleash. Now agents of the Hundred Halls actively suppress any research in this area… which naturally allows conspiracy theorists to point to the lack of hard science supporting these ideas as evidence oft he conspiracy!